a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the field of building panels for such use as roofing, interior or exterior walls, even entire buildings and in particular to building panels having an insulating core and structural and/or weather resistant exterior surfaces, said building panels being sealingly joinable along at least one edge.
b) Description of the Prior Art
Foam core building panels are relatively well known in the prior art. They comprise a sandwich construction having a foam insulating core with structural skins permanently bonded to the exterior surfaces of the foam. Typically, the foam core is approximately three (3) inches thick although a thickness of up to eight (8) inches is becoming increasingly popular. The skins may be aluminum, steel, plywood or any other appropriate structural material. Where the building panels incorporate metal skins, the metal skins average approximately 0.019 to 0.032 inches thick. The outer surfaces may be decorated in any manner conceivable, but typically the metal skins are embossed and painted to present a relatively smooth and aesthetically pleasing appearance. The panels generally average four (4) to eight (8) feet wide by eight (8) to forty (40) feet in length. Of course, these are just typical dimensions which have found acceptance in the building industry.
The foam core provides excellent thermal insulating properties while being very light in weight. The exterior skins are permanently bonded to the foam core and even though they are relatively thin they provide a high degree of structural strength to the panels and further provide a surface capable of withstanding severe weather conditions. One can readily imagine the many possible uses for building panels having so many excellent properties. For example, they can be used for walls, both interior or exterior, ceilings, roofs, partitions, tables, doors, columns, building facades, marquees, buildings, etc. However, in the early prior art the foam core building panels have found limited use where they were primarily used for porch roofs and refrigeration buildings. The limited use of the early prior art foam core building panels has been because of the difficulty of joining together adjacent panels and being able to seal the joint. Because of these basic deficiencies, it is understandable that developed uses for the early prior art foam panels was at a standstill.
Upon reviewing the early prior art one sees that there are methods and apparatus used to join together adjacent foam core panels and that they are extremely varied. However, virtually none of the early prior art methods and apparatus used to join the panels were or are in commercial usage. The ostensible reason being that the prior art methods and apparatus did not work when applied to actual construction conditions. For example, the relatively long length of the panels in combination with the relatively thin outer surfaces of the panels does not permit precise end configurations, and therefore does not allow the panels to fit together as envisioned in the prior art drawings. The prior art drawings are two dimensional which conceptually provide for a proper joint; but, under construction conditions, the long length of the panels comprises a third dimension which is not provided for in the prior art drawings. Thus, while the prior art configurations might fit together on paper, the fit up along the entire length of the panels could not be accomplished. But of course, for a satisfactory building panel the entire length of all the panels must be capable of being joined and sealed under actual conditions. Then too, many of the early prior art methods and apparatus were too cumbersome or too complicated to be commercially feasible.
In the prior art therefore, the primary method used to join panels at the point of assembly or at the construction site was to use metal or vinyl splines which fit between formed and extending metal edges of adjacent panels. The splines extended the full length of the edge of the panels which typically is between eight to twenty feet in length and because of this, it was required that the splines be very loosely fitted. A tightly fitting spline could not be slid along the entire length of the panel, it would jam somewhere along the length when being installed. A pair of splines were usually used at each joined joint; one on one side of the panel and another on the other side of the panel. The procedure would be to place two panels side by side, then to fit a spline between the formed and extending edges of the exterior surfaces of one side of both panels and to insert the spline in the direction of the panel length to progressively join one side of the exterior surfaces. A second spline would then be similarly installed on the other side of the exterior surfaces. But because of the required looseness of the splines, the result would be two joined panels whereby the joint would be loose and not be sealed against the weather. Another major disadvantage of this type of joint (i.e. using splines) is that a significant open space resulted between the ends of the foam cores of the panels. The uninsulated space caused moisture condensation problems on the underside of the joined panels. Moreover, the resulting joint would have little if any structural integrity and would not add to the overall stiffness of the two joined panels. Needless to say, a loose fitting unsealed joint was not a favorable condition. Various attempts were made to insert a bead of caulk or other sealant between the adjacent panel edges to form a weather tight joint but such attempts were mostly unsuccessful because of the necessity to push the spline in the direction of the joint which resulted in disturbing the bead of caulk.
In various attempts to overcome the deficiencies of the splined together panel joints, the early prior art discloses sundry designs which are intended to be pushed together to form a joint between adjacent panels. However, as stated above, none of these prior art push together joint designs were commercially successful. They were either to complicated to be manufactured, were too expensive or did not form the intended joint when long panels were attempted to be joined. Thus, in the early prior art, the most widely used method of joining the panels was to use the loose fitting splines however unsatisfactory the resulting joint was.
In approximately 1987, the inventor herein conceived, invented, designed and developed mating end configurations for adjacent foam core building panels which successfully overcame the problems of the early prior art and resulted in a snap together joint. That invention changed the foam core panel industry. A subsequent invention improved the snap together joint even more. The use of the splines became obsolete. My inventions snapped together in the field and worked with long panels. Even with these inventions there still were some occasions where the joint was not to this inventor's satisfaction. The sealing provided by my prior inventions could be improved. The present invention addresses that aspect of my snap together joint.
Accordingly a primary object of the present invention is to provide foam construction panels with a push together joint having a positive seal.
Another object of the present invention is to provide foam construction panels with a push together joint having a predictable, predetermined vertical and horizontal space between joined panels while minimizing side to side looseness between adjacent panels with or without a sealant being used.
The above-stated objects as well as other objects which, although not specifically stated, but are intended to be included within the scope the present invention, are accomplished by the present invention and will become apparent from the hereinafter set forth Summary of the Invention, Detailed Description of the Invention, Drawings, and the Claims appended herewith.